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Julian Doan’s Long’s Long Lost & Mini Mart has won the Ripcord Halloween Film Festival grand prize of $100,000 at the first event. The win concludes a 13-film final that screened at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on October 29, with winners announced on October 30.
The 17-minute short is set in the back rooms of a Little Saigon convenience store. The film follows a young customer who seeks closure by reanimating his deceased father for one last conversation, leading to unexpected consequences that the store’s no-nonsense clerk, played by Hồng Đào, must address.
Here is the official trailer for the festival’s Dirty Dozen finalists:
The festival was built in the open. Ripcord, a new independent film platform, drew more than 500 submissions and selected 50 horror, sci-fi, thriller and fantasy shorts, which streamed free at ripcord.film from October 19 to 22 while audiences voted. The final was initially planned as a Top 10, but voting was so close that festival directors Charlie Cleveland, John Hegeman and Stacy Jorgensen expanded the field to a “Dirty Dozen” of 12, and then to 13 finalists as voting stayed close.
A five-member jury determined the prizes at the Chinese Theatre screening: Deadpool director Tim Miller, Fantastic Fest short film programmer Jean Lauer, Sundance short film programmer Lisa Ogdie, Emmy-winning designer Neville Page and producer Peter Phok. The festival put more than $200,000 in cash prizes on the table, topped by a $100,000 first prize the festival claimed it was the largest ever awarded at a short film festival.
The win adds to a long festival run for Doan’s short. He created the film as one of 10 directors in Season 5 of Indeed and Hillman Grad’s Rising Voices program, and premiered at the Tribeca Festival in 2025. It went on to win Best Short in a tie and the Audience Choice award for Best Short at Viet Film Fest 2025, and Best Short Narrative at the Ouray International Film Festival. Doan’s previous short, Raspberry, also premiered at Sundance in 2021, and he is currently developing his first feature, Half Sweet.
The complete list of the 13 finalists and the 50 films screened during the festival is available at ripcord.film.
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